It's not actually possible to understand Dragon Age.

smoochables compiled ... 💓

is it a hot take to say that i think you need to understand why something is bad, not just that it simply is?

this is a part of the problem

you need to be able to explain why you shouldnt use ai rather than “oh well its obviously bad and you shouldnt use it or else youre a bad person” because that isn’t logic. “ai generates child porn based off of real children and whether or not it does is entirely up to how it is built and if pedophiles are able to find ways around those safeguards, because ai cannot in itself discern right from wrong” is a genuine criticism. “amazon tried to build a data center the size of tuson outside of tuson just to power their ai that would’ve increased the inability to stay alive outside in parts of arizona” is a genuine criticism. even “using generative ai teaches you not to learn how to do things yourself even when they’re difficult, devaluing necessary skills out of practice” is a genuine criticism when you look at the amount of people who think they are able of doing a difficult major when they couldnt write their own papers in high school.

but “ai is just bad because it’s bad” will convince no one and is a morally lazy position to take. about anything!

you need to know why reading someone’s diary is wrong if you want to learn about privacy and respect. you need to know why child sexual assault is wrong if you want to be able to help children form healthy age appropriate relationships. you need to know why capitalism is bad if you want to replace it with something else. you need actual concrete ideas and ideologies rather than “you should agree with me because i have the right vibe”

Personally I much prefer when it's not that characters can't see a betrayal coming, but moreso when they make themselves blind to the signs. When they write off discrepancies. When they close their eyes and ears to anything that doesn't fit their image. When it's not only a betrayal of the other but also their own perception

Mam! wanted finaly to draw her in color (based more on concept arts)

Have a WIP while I get this new blog set up

I think there are two Dalish battle traditions that evolved directly from Solas’ rebellion: the Emerald Knights and the Fade Hunters.

In the The Lifting of the Vallaslin where “Images flash by: former slaves in ranks with Fen'Harel, armed and strong.” - we are given the image of Solas standing with the elves ready to fight. While history, propaganda, and retellings may have altered Solas’ story and the story of the rebellion, there are always pieces of truth that are preserved. As Solas himself says, “Something existed to start the legends.” Well, something existed to start these battle traditions as well. I’m not saying Solas invented them but the elves who fought and survived the chaos of the Veil would have passed on what they knew in their own tellings, talked of a time when the elves stood in battle with a great wolf. Over generations this would have evolved into the Emerald Knights who: "rode halla into battle and fought alongside wolf companions known as the Knight's Guardians." Guardians you say? Well, the Dread Wolf was known as a protector first before propaganda twisted truths.

Then we have the Fade Hunters, also Emerald Knights but they were “tasked with protecting the Dalish kingdom from maleficarum and demons.”

This seems like a practical application of knowledge of the Fade taken into battle. In a previous post I highlighted how Solas is addressed as Spirit Speaker as his first title. We also know spirits fought alongside Solas, Felassan and the rebels, and that the spirits were victims of the Evanuris just as the elves were. It would make sense that battle traditions passed on down from a time when the Fade and Physical world were one would result in something like the Fade Hunters.

Taken together, the Emerald Knights and the Fade Hunters don’t feel like separate inventions or later Dalish romanticism. One preserves the memory of fighting beside Fen’Harel in the physical world, the other carries forward how that same fight extended into the Fade. Over time, details change and blur, but truths persist and show themselves in these legends of great Dalish warriors.

come and find me, lying in the bed i made.

A studious Egg

“The Artifact” One of two pieces I did for Beyond the Veil charity fanzine